One of my favourite things about winter is pasta. Thick, stodgy, rib sticking pasta that keeps out the damp cold of a London winter.
One of my favourite things about summer is pasta. Super light and perfect for a balmy evening with a glass of something lovely pasta.
Quite how on earth pasta manages to match my every mood I'm not sure, but it does and I raise my glass of something lovely to the Italians for it.
Molto bene!
Whilst my favourite winter pasta recipes are most often adapted from Carluccio
, in the summer I reach for my much thumbed River Cafe Pocket Pasta Book.And two of my big faves out of it are their Spaghetti in Lemon and Tagliatelle with Lemon & Cream recipes.
The spaghetti is just made with the zest and juice of 2 lemons, plus lots of Parmesan and basil. You make a thick sauce by slowly stirring the lemon and Parmesan together and then add enough olive oil to make it creamy. After stirring the spaghetti into the sauce you garnish with lots of chopped basil and more Parmesan.
The lemon sauce for the tagliatelle is made from about 300ml of warmed double cream combined with the zest and juice of 3 lemons and 100g of unsalted butter. You stir the tagliatelle into the sauce and garnish with parsley and Parmesan.
In reality, I just use these two recipes as inspiration and adapt each time depending on:
- What long pasta I have in the cupboard
- Whether I have cream or yoghurt or neither in the fridge
- What herbs I fancy picking from the front garden
I do prefer it with tagliatelle and failing that linguine rather than spaghetti.
And as alternatives to the basil and parsley - which I never seem to have much of - I more often use mint, oregano or thyme all of which grow with abandon in my garden.
I think any combination of these ingredients tastes wonderful with spinach or courgettes (zuchinni). I have tried working them into the sauce but think they are definitely best on the side, with the pasta left in all the glory of its unadulterated lemoniness.
As I said, molto bene!
I would love to hear about your favourite pasta recipes - do link them up below.
Share Your Pasta Recipes
This post has been shared at ... Sugar Bee Crafts, Home Stories A to Z, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Joyful Homemaking, Serenity Now, The Gunny Sack, Crystal and Co, Ginger Snap Crafts, Trendy Tree House, Domesblissity, Ladybird Ln, Not Just a Housewife, Clever Chicks, Be Different Act Normal, Sumos Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, Lines Across, Get Your Crafts On, A Bowlful of Lemons, Clean and Scentsible, Delightful Order, We Are That Family, By Stephanie Lynn, Whipperberry, More the Merrier Monday, I Should Be Mopping the Floor, Carolyn's Homework, Shabby Creek Cottage, 36th Avenue, Six Sisters Stuff, 52 Mantels, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Elizabeth and Co, Whatever Goes, Finding Fabulous, The Thrifty Home, Skip to My Lou, Five Little Chefs, Fluster Muster, Creative Princess, DIY Crafty Projects
This posts includes affiliate links.
0 comments